Anyone with UPC Broadband-a little help?

Rb

Holy ****, I'm still getting calls from their automated spam machine. I don't even know what to do now, I've requested 3 times to be taken off their spamming list and yet it won't go away.

Also lol @ defending UPC and their reputation. NTL had a terrible reputation for customer service, in fact it was routinely named as the worst customer service provider in the country. UPC has continued this reputation and there are complaints all over the internet about their disgraceful customer service. If you google the numbers they call you from, people have been filing complaints with the Gardai, that's how bad they are.

Their behaviour is indefensible but if some idiots want to defend it blindly then work away, there's enough evidence throughout the internet and elsewhere that there are enormous issues with this company and a few tacky shills on a shite Irish forum aren't going to change many opinions. One of their engineers had previously admitted that installations were often done badly to gain call outs (since their installations and maintenance is outsourced) and keep the company busy. They're horrendous.

jor el

For continued stupid posts, trolling and ignoring of warnings, Rb takes a permanent break from this forum.

vibe666

i can't say i've never had any problems with UPC because I've had plenty of problems in the past, but it's the same with any company.

nobody puts the same effort into customer service these days as they used to, i see it every day in my own job and it's terrible but it's also a fact of life. everyone wants everythin cheaper so customer service is usually the first to go and that has a knock on effect to other areas when things DO go wrong (and from time to time they will do, such is the way of these things).

my broadband has been down a few times in the year and a half i've had it and my phonelinehas been intermittent and it's cost me more in mobile bills as a result, but it looks like that problem is fixed and my broadband is now better than it's ever been and i'm actually genuinely excited to see what happens when the 100mbps comes in, even though i know i don't really need it.

i had a tremendous amount of trouble in the past with both chorus and ntl so i've as much reason as anyone to hate them, and indeed i did and i've thrown a fair bit of abuse at upc fanboi's myself in the past but they've (upc, not fanboi's ) done and awful lot of good for broadband in ireland just recently and they're still doing more and as a very heavy internet user i can appreciate that and i'm grateful.

no, they're probably don't have the best customer service record in ireland and no, it doesn't work 100% of the time for everyone, but for the most part, in my recent experience they're offering the fastest service and it's about to get LOTS faster so i'm all onboard with that.

Cabaal

In relation to UPC reliability, I used UPC for approx two years.

Speed wise I certainly can't fault them, I never had to telephone them but every few months my modem would loose connection for upto an hour. It would always resolve itself though and I was never that pushed about it

Downtime could have been easily down to service outage, no residential ISP is going to give a business service level agreement agreeing to 98/99% uptime.

CrazyRabbit

It's really hit & miss with UPC.

Either the best connection & service, or it's absolute hell.

I get great speeds usually, but have also had frequent disconnections & less frequently, about 40-50% packet loss. And this is for well over 2 years now.
Most of the time, I can live with it, but on occasion it gets extremely bad and I have to call support. After so dozens of dozens of calls, I don't think I'm any closer to getting a permanent fix.

I am one of the unlucky few, or are those with a good connection a part of a small and extremely lucky group? I don't know to be honest, but I think UPC do deserve a lot of the bashing they get.

Witchy.ie

I recently moved from Vodaphone BB to the UPC Phone/TV/Wireless 15 Mb Broadband package. When it's working the BB speed seems to be ok but I'm rebooting the Cisco router a couple of times a day and still 2 out of 3 web pages I try to visit fail to open on the first or second attempt, instead I get the now all to familiar "Your internet does not appear to be working" message. It takes repeated refresh's to get the page to finally load. It's extremely frustration I never had a problem with the previous provider apart from 1 or 2 short outages over a three year period. Calling their tech support has so far yielded only the usual BS response, "Have you tried rebooting the router". I realise that others have reported good service from UPC and good luck to them but I've had enough and will be changing back asap.

Karmafaerie

Witchy.ie wrote: »

I recently moved from Vodaphone BB to the UPC Phone/TV/Wireless 15 Mb Broadband package. When it's working the BB speed seems to be ok but I'm rebooting the Cisco router a couple of times a day and still 2 out of 3 web pages I try to visit fail to open on the first or second attempt, instead I get the now all to familiar "Your internet does not appear to be working" message. It takes repeated refresh's to get the page to finally load. It's extremely frustration I never had a problem with the previous provider apart from 1 or 2 short outages over a three year period. Calling their tech support has so far yielded only the usual BS response, "Have you tried rebooting the router". I realise that others have reported good service from UPC and good luck to them but I've had enough and will be changing back asap.

From what you're describing there every problem you hae is a wireless issue.
Have you troubleshooted your wireless?
Cause I'd be surprissed these days if 1/3 to 1/2 of all newly set up wireless networks don't have problems until troubleshooted.

The UPC install technician is just gonna set it up and walk away, but that doesn't mean you're working optimally by a long shot.

If you've never set up a wifi connection before a few of us here can advise you, or you can call UPC and ask for the second line BB support.

Improbable

I've been with ntl/UPC for several years now and never had much cause to complain. There are the odd periods of downtime but no more than a couple of hours once every 5-6 months. Just yesterday I contacted them to get the free upgrade from a 20Mb line to 30Mb deal and it was done within the hour. Speeds have always been reliable.

DemoniK

Just moved from Smart (aka digiweb now) to UPC after watching a neighbours connection over 2 months.
I like them have had no connection issues, and get full speed up and down.
I've only had good experience with their customer service also - I had an initial problem (my misunderstanding) where I switched the modem/router into bridge mode and my phone line dissappeared. Apparently you need to have the router on for the ATA points on the box to function for the phones.

Bloody stupid to me, and seemed like a bug in the firmware. I got on to them and explained what I was observing - they checked to see if they could get me a modem - nope - all out of stock and no longer being order.
So we discussed and I suggested getting a box - which I did and was up and running within 15mins of phoning them up again to provision.

All in all I'm happy with UPC.
Smart were no longer being competitive, and their phone support waas woeful. Only for the guys on their forum I would have left a long time before hand.

I looked at others before leaving to UPC. Vodafone appear to be the worst right now as I know several folks who are extremely unhappy with them - in fact all are moving back to Eircom because of the crap service.
I looked at Magnet, but the twats on the phone couldn't explain to me what their Bolt package would give me. I emailed them first - no reply. I phoned, got hung up on, phoned again and they couldn't answer my technical queries (I wanted proof on improved routing for gaming servers). I was going to post on their forum here which was removed because they were setting up their own. About a month later, still nothing...

So UPC was the next thing. And I'm happy with them. I hated Chorus MMDS in the old days and still wouldn't go for their TV service. But the BB has been up now for 2 weeks and is rock solid here in Limerick.

kiwilostineire

I have had three missed calls from the UPC number today, it only rings once or twice and then they hang up so I do not even get the chance to answer. Guess they are then ticking the box to say they attempted a call.

I only have basic tv package through them so I guess they are interested in me upgrading....

I am on three, moved from meteor, never had issues with either mobile company and only moved to get a nicer phone.

But then I don't tend to call them looking to raise issues.

TanG411

I've been with UPC Since 2002 (When it was just Chorus) using their TV service only.
Last week we moved to their broadband and phone service (Moved from Smart Telecom).
We got the 15MB bb package and even though I'm happy with the service, the download speed using speedtest.net comes up as 5.5mb/s. Is that normal for 15MB?

Anyway, I'm using the Cisco router, unbridged. They're definitly a good service, never had a major problem with them before.

vibe666

Larkin91 wrote: »

I've been with UPC Since 2002 (When it was just Chorus) using their TV service only.
Last week we moved to their broadband and phone service (Moved from Smart Telecom).
We got the 15MB bb package and even though I'm happy with the service, the download speed using speedtest.net comes up as 5.5mb/s. Is that normal for 15MB?

Anyway, I'm using the Cisco router, unbridged. They're definitly a good service, never had a major problem with them before.

no, not normal.

one thing about UPC broadband is that if everything is working properly, you should get the advertised speed (at least in non-peak times).

do some more speedtests (i'd usually run it a few times on a different server each time to confirm the fastest server, don't just let it auto-pick) and then ring UPC and tell tech support. it could be something simple, or it could be something that needs an engineer out, so keep at them until it's resolved.

TanG411

vibe666 wrote: »

no, not normal.

one thing about UPC broadband is that if everything is working properly, you should get the advertised speed (at least in non-peak times).

do some more speedtests (i'd usually run it a few times on a different server each time to confirm the fastest server, don't just let it auto-pick) and then ring UPC and tell tech support. it could be something simple, or it could be something that needs an engineer out, so keep at them until it's resolved.

Just checked it on speedtest again and my Download came at 14.72mb/s so it seems okay now. Probably slow at the time due to them setting it up, or something.

ShaneU

Is it possible to get UPC phone and broadband without getting their TV subscription?

IrishTonyO

ShaneU wrote: »

Is it possible to get UPC phone and broadband without getting their TV subscription?

Yes, they charge a 'standalone' charge of about €8 if you do not get the TV service.

Zero-Cool

Can anyone tell me if the UPC wireless USB dongle is N standard? I just resorted to my internal nic wlan card but i'm only get 3-4 mb's instead of the 15mb. I tried my friends new laptop with windows 7 beside the desktop and ran speed tests on both. 14.5mbs on laptop, 3mb's on desktop. Desktop has XP and the wlan card is G standard. If the dongle is N standard I will give this a go.

Thanks

IrishTonyO

sheehy83 wrote: »

Can anyone tell me if the UPC wireless USB dongle is N standard? I just resorted to my internal nic wlan card but i'm only get 3-4 mb's instead of the 15mb. I tried my friends new laptop with windows 7 beside the desktop and ran speed tests on both. 14.5mbs on laptop, 3mb's on desktop. Desktop has XP and the wlan card is G standard. If the dongle is N standard I will give this a go.

Thanks

Do you mean the wireless router? UPC don't have a dongle. Their wireless routers at the moment are b/g not sure what ones they will have for the new speeds.

Zero-Cool

IrishTonyO wrote: »

Do you mean the wireless router? UPC don't have a dongle. Their wireless routers at the moment are b/g not sure what ones they will have for the new speeds.

They supplied me with a dongle. Router is in sitting room. Engineer couldn't connect with my built in wireless card so he put in a wireless USB dongle to pick up the internet connection. I unplugged it when he went cuz I would trust the internal card more but I need to check if the dongle has N standard.

IrishTonyO

sheehy83 wrote: »

They supplied me with a dongle. Router is in sitting room. Engineer couldn't connect with my built in wireless card so he put in a wireless USB dongle to pick up the internet connection. I unplugged it when he went cuz I would trust the internal card more but I need to check if the dongle has N standard.

Oh didn't realise they gave out dongles, do a Google on the make and model should be on the dongle somewhere.

Zero-Cool

Just at work at the mo so can't check but I will tonight if no one has one here. On the phone to UPC, tech support were very helpful (they really did improve their service imo.) But agent said their network might not be the most compatible with XP. If their dongle won't get full speeds, I will need to buy new wlan card with N standard or upgrade to Windows 7 (which I don't think I really need to do)

IrishTonyO

sheehy83 wrote: »

Just at work at the mo so can't check but I will tonight if no one has one here. On the phone to UPC, tech support were very helpful (they really did improve their service imo.) But agent said their network might not be the most compatible with XP. If their dongle won't get full speeds, I will need to buy new wlan card with N standard or upgrade to Windows 7 (which I don't think I really need to do)

That is bull about their network not being the most compatible. It makes no difference to their network what operating system you are using

Zero-Cool

Thats what I was thinking seeing as xp can pick up 10 mb's through ethernet. Just sickened when i used my friends laptop and got 14.5 mbs, would love that!!

mixster

Any questions avout UPC please ask as anything i tell you will be gospel. I will give an honest answer to all questions or posts. The main problem with upc bradband is not the new fibre optic cables that have been installed for the past 4 years or the new flashy cisco equipment but it is rather the fact that in between the distribution cable and the modem are smaller boxes which hold all the connections for each apartment or house, these are in shocking order and to me its a miracle that any service at all remains. You can see these boxes in apartments car parks etc, they are green in colour and resemble a crows nest due to the lack of repair over the years. In future before you ring their 'HELPLINE' see if you can locate the mains box and you should be able to infrom them as to what the problem is.

Xzen

IrishTonyO wrote: »

That is bull about their network not being the most compatible. It makes no difference to their network what operating system you are using

The CS person probably was refering to the upcoming 100Mb packages on UPC.
In Netherlands UPC Say the same thing. Windows XP can only achieve a portion of the 100Mb speeds through Ethernet. So UPC offer software for their 120Mb+ packages that fiddles with a few registry settings in XP to improve things and it does work. (from the UPC.NL site)
Of course this doesn't apply to Win Vista or 7.